March 31 2013 Easter Sunday

Luke 24:1-12

  1 On the first day of the week, very early in the morning, the women took the spices they had prepared and went to the tomb. 2 They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but when they entered, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus. 4 While they were wondering about this, suddenly two men in clothes that gleamed like lightning stood beside them. 5 In their fright the women bowed down with their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, "Why do you look for the living among the dead? 6 He is not here; he has risen! Remember how he told you, while he was still with you in Galilee: 7 'The Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men, be crucified and on the third day be raised again.' " 8 Then they remembered his words.
    9 When they came back from the tomb, they told all these things to the Eleven and to all the others. 10 It was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the others with them who told this to the apostles. 11 But they did not believe the women, because their words seemed to them like nonsense. 12 Peter, however, got up and ran to the tomb. Bending over, he saw the strips of linen lying by themselves, and he went away, wondering to himself what had happened.

“Not Among The Dead”

The women going to the tomb were thinking only of death.  “for them the death of Jesus was real, final defeat, the ultimate tragedy...they go to the tomb to tend to the dead.”
Proc. 3, C, p.10

Then something strange and bewildering happened -”awesome in splendor”, too wonderful to understand.  He was gone.  Risen!
Then they remembered - and believed.

We too need to remember so we can believe.
Remember that Jesus lives - death is not the final word, nothing can separate us from God’s love, there is a dazzling grace which never lets us go.

We also need to be reminded that life is full of opportunity for resurrection - that “the most difficult thing we will ever do is not die, but live” - live as those who believe in the resurrection and therefore as those who hope against hope and confront a living Lord in all sorts of places and people which cross our path.
Death is not the final word; and we are to live as those who know this, believe this, dare trust this above all things.

 “Anything Can Happen Now!”

We live in a world where almost anything can happen.  We travel to the moon and beyond.  We transplant kidneys and hearts.  We travel so fast we can arrive before we left.  We control rivers and remove mountains.  We can do most anything, sometimes to our good, sometimes to our detriment  Almost anything can happen.  Little seems to be impossible anymore.

We also live in a world where the impossible has happened. A world where the most incredible, unbelievable, fantastic, breath taking event has taken place which still causes us to gasp with amazement and say, “I don’t believe it.”  For it is in this our world that God chose to dwell and it is in this world that a resurrection happened!

Anything CAN happen now.  The tomb is empty, the future is open!
In this there is hope for our living and our dying.

Because Jesus lives life is an open door, never to close.
Because Jesus lives we are free to drink deeply of life today, as well as trust in life eternal.
Because Jesus lives we are free to forgive over and over again; forgive even ourselves!
Because Jesus lives we are free to try and fail and try again.  To learn, change and grow.
Because Jesus lives we are even free to die - in peace.
Indeed, anything can happen now!

He is Risen!  Alleluia!

 “Working Wonders”

God is in the business of working wonders.

Easter is the greatest wonder God ever pulled off...the wonder of the resurrection.
It stands as a mark of excellence and a place where something too wonderful to believe happened.

As we walk into the 21st century we need to come to grips with the truth that the resurrection of Jesus Christ, the only Son of God is such an exclusive event that it excludes no one!

It is so powerful a truth that even those who do not believe it happened benefit from it.

As the Catholic Dutch theologian Hans Kung has said:

God “not only demands but gives.
does not suppress but raises up
  does not punish but liberates,
(and) makes grace instead of law rule unconditionally.”
p. 115, Eternal Life

“For God so loved the world that he worked the wonder of a resurrection into it, so that all might know that at the heart and center of the universe, love is reigning...and it is for all!